we have landed

Oh. My. God. What a long day. Considering we started it at around 4.30am on Tuesday 14th June and 32 hours later its only 10.30pm on the same day... We haven't had much sleep, 20 minutes here, an hour there, but probably no more than 4 hours in total since we left home.

The day started with some minor panic. Our pre-booked car arrived late because he was on Oakey Flat Road at Morayfield instead of Narangba.  Now, I understand that Oakey Flat Road covers about four suburbs but wouldn't you at least start in the suburb where the people lived?  Anyway, that wasn't too bad until he tells us he has to go back to Redcliffe to pick up another passenger (he just came from there!) and then of course we hit peak hour traffic.  Check in closes 90 minutes before departure.  We got there with about 20 minutes to spare and didn't get to the gate until about 5 minutes before boarding.  No freebies in Qantas club for us!

I had two 'random' drug tests including pat downs in Brisbane.  Glen had a bit of a issue with his underarm deodorant but otherwise no dramas with security.

We both had pretty good seats on the flight to LA. We were in the second last row of the plane so they were 2 seats together. Its a bit bumpier down there and very noisy but not having to worry about people beside you was good. Both of our seats were a bit dodgy though and we often found ourselves reclining even though we didn't press the recline button. I'm sure the people behind us were impressed with that.  Food was good and more than enough to keep us from being hungry.

Security in LA was as expected.  We had to do a changeover to our NY connection and because we were running late it was rush rush. They're very organised though and have express lanes for connecting flights.  Fingerprints were taken of both our hands - four fingers together, then thumb. They take a photo of you which after 13 hours on a flight, I'm sure was definitely mug shot worthy.  The customs guy did tell me that we couldn't take Tim Tams into the US.  He was joking but I was devastated for a minute there.  Once we cleared customs it was through another screening point.  Even though this was a domestic flight we had to show passports and be scanned again. We clearly looked a bit dodgy.  Both of us were 'randomly' chosen for full body scans.  Nothing too much of a problem, just standing with your hands in the air (like you just don't care - ha! < - - sorry if you're a bit too old for that joke but right now without any sleep I find it hilarious).  Then we had to walk for 2 kms to our flight.  Another 4 hours 45 of sitting down but we probably got the most sleep on this flight.

Glen jinxed us at NY and suggested that our bags would be the last ones off the plane and they pretty much were.  We had pre-booked a transfer to the hotel and after calling them to let them know we were there, they arrived about 20 minutes later (despite the nice man on the phone telling me it would be 5 minutes).  A guy turns up asking for Mechelley and then asks if we wouldn't mind waiting another 5 minutes or so while he eats.  Sure we say, why not we say?!?!?!  So he takes us to the car and then sits and eats what was possibly the most disgusting looking (think heated up PAL), terrible smelling food I've ever witnessed. Glen and I was just laughing to ourselves in the back.  Once he takes off he's all over the road, eating two slices of bread, reading text messages, answering his mobile, putting on his seatbelt 2kms after we'd left.  Oh that's right and I didn't have a seatbelt at all.  He was nice enough though, showed us his gym, asked us a bit about Australia and showed us where he hangs out in NYC!!

The hotel is great.  Thanks to Kirsty for her tip about using Trip Advisor.  This one was the highest ranked that we could afford and its more than adequate.  Big room, very clean, lovely staff, free breakfast, free wifi (are you listening NBN) and really close to pretty much everything.  We went for a walk tonight to grab some dinner and ended up with McDonald's and Starbucks because its not like you can get that at home!!!

Mechelle